


Atonement (Easy come easy go re written)

by RestlessRiver



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Amends, And why break tradition?, Even is dead, Heartless - Freeform, Heavy Angst, Ienzo is not okay, Internal Conflict, Isa is dying, Multi, Neither is Lea, Nobody - Freeform, The original was written before melolody of memory or the 3 dlc came out, Trans Male Character, Vanitas was never okay, Xion is a badass, atonment, exploratory, i don't know how to tag, rewritten, seriously, that boy has suffered, this is a post kh three fic and divergent from there, trans Ienzo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 14:06:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28761516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RestlessRiver/pseuds/RestlessRiver
Summary: The new title is also a place holder like the last, just one that fits a little bit better.This is a re write and a rebuild of Easy Come Easy Go.It's post 3. Started before M.O.M. so call it a semi canon divergent fic.Upon reformation, those who found themselves in "The Real Organization" are falling to an inky darkness re-consuming their hearts. The illness leaves them like sleeping dolls. Even already fell to it, and Isa has been in the doll like sleep for two months. Worried that Isa might not get saved in time, Lea volunteers to take Ienzo to find his fallen father in order to get on his good side despite being his previous murderer- but the RA team still hasn't found a way to reverse the illness. The answer may lie in with whatever Even was searching for before he fell. While Lea is gone, Xion goes behind everyone's backs to find the cure on her own.
Relationships: Axel/Saïx (Kingdom Hearts), Demyx/Ienzo (Kingdom Hearts), Demyx/Zexion (Kingdom Hearts), Isa/Lea (Kingdom Hearts)
Kudos: 9





	Atonement (Easy come easy go re written)

**Author's Note:**

> Things may be tweaked.
> 
> The first two chapters of the original draft are combined here along with more exposition and (hopefully) a more clarified writing style. 
> 
> NOTE: I head canon Ienzo as a trans man.

He wasn’t so used to cars. Something about them made the man nervous though, perceptive as he always had been, he could never truly put his finger on it. True, he now had fair reason to be nervous within the vehicle, but not due to traveling. 

Ienzo studied his reflection in the glass. His hair seemed so brightly blue today despite it’s usual stormy dullness. It was the overcast day he reasoned. He had no other reason to perceive such a bright color. Why then were his eyes so dull?    
  
Ienzo let his head lull on the glass, his hair bunching on the condensation from his breath against the cold.    
  
“It will be okay” his companion assured him. Ienzo nodded politely.   
  
Ienzo wasn't sure how he felt about the worlds re-merging. If he could only pick one reason why he hated it, it would be that it took so much longer to get where you were going now. You couldn't simply cut through space on a ship now. Travel over land and sea seemed contrived after the life he led.    
  
Though he had to hold his tongue over that didn’t he? To complain over it would be selfish. A scientist strives for progress, grasps for it until it is firmly in hand. The world’s remerginging into one  _ was  _ progress. That is how things were before light fell to darkness. It started with a key blade war and it ended with a key blade war. Their universe was healing itself. This is how it was supposed to be.   
  
This whole situation was so incredibly wrong. Never did he think he would find his only companion to seek solace in would be the very man who orchestrated his death under a different name. You could argue that they were not their nobodies a million times, and outwardly? Ienzo would agree with you. However, not so deep down Ienzo knew that he could never forget that this man driving the car beside him killed him and his family. Over and over Ienzo watched his family die where he was the last to fall. Ever since he was a little boy that is how it was. Part of Ienzo had come to expect it. That expectation made things so much sweeter when his loved one’s came out the other side allright. When his old mentor rejoined him, Ienzo was brought to the brink of tears just from seeing Ansem’s face smile down on him. However, good and bad were in a constant balancing act.   
It was one of the many reasons he held tight to books. Books did not leave, nor did they die. Words printed in ink on paper and wedged together on a shelf never changed unless you actively took them apart. You control when their tale ends. Ienzo longed for that control.    
  
“I know what you are going through.” Lea tried to soothe.   
Ienzo turned away from him more, forehead against the glass and gut coiling with tension the bluenette knew he could not stand for much longer.   
“Honestly Ienzo. I lost him- I know.” Lea continued.   
“Stop talking. Drive.” Ienzo spoke in an uncharacteristically gravelly voice.   
  
Lea winced. He did not however snap at the man. He was the same when he found out. The only thing different for Ienzo is that now they knew what was causing the deaths. Those who elected to be vessels were falling apart from the inside out. The standing theory now is that their hearts ended up too damaged when they grew back. Nothing so revolutionary to explain their passing.   
When Lea watched Isa fall to the ground for the first time he had no clue why it had to happen.    
  
“Two years” Lea mumbled to himself.   
Ienzo bit his tongue.   
“I got two years with him” the red head’s hands gripped the wheel tighter.   
Ienzo pulled from the glass and glanced at Lea through his hair. “Isa is strong. Young. He may make it” Ienzo spoke hollowly.   
Lea winced again. “May…”   
  
Ienzo turned to face the windshield. “You haven’t lost him yet. He is not the first to find himself asleep for an incredible amount of time”.   
The car pulled to a stop at a light before a tunnel. Lea let his hands slip from the wheel. “I am supposed to be comforting you but I-”   
“Shh. I know. Just drive”.   
  
_ He is scared out of his mind Ienzo. Isa may indeed pull through.  _ The bluenette thought to himself.  _ And Xion is so very young and has yet to show symptoms. The young may pull through. _ The bluenette’s eyes screwed shut.   
  
When the car started back up Ienzo pulled his knees to his chest despite it not being the safest position in a moving vehicle.. He knew what it was like to worry over a young loved one in all this...The blond flashed across his mind.   
Ienzo also knew what it was like to have already lost someone to this terrifying condition.   
  
The bluenette fell into a restless sleep, distrubed by the lack of rain just outside his window when the car ducked into the underwater tunnel. Rousing only came when the car shifted to the side as if hit by some blow by confused wild life.    
  
Getting stranded was not in the plans. The rain poured heavily down on Lea’s back as he kicked a tire in dull misplaced rage.. The jostling stirred Ienzo and he lifted his head to peer out the window. 

Red hair plastered to the man’s forehead. Ienzo’s eyes softened and he watched carefully. The rain muffled it well but he knew well the scent of tears when he smelled it. Lucky for him he kept his uncanny sense of smell upon reformation.    
  
Lea’s shoulders were tense and risen, the line from shoulder to shoulder almost completely straight. Another kick to the tire then Lea slunked to the ground, back against the vehicle.   
  
A minute or so later had Ienzo slowly opening the door. He came out into the rain and pulled his hood over his head. The bluenette surveyed the car and found that yes, the tire was deflating sure enough. Ienzo heaved a sigh and sat down easily next to Lea, back sliding along the cold grey car door. His hoodie collected chilly grey rain into the black fabric, a sharp contrast to the artificial warmth of the cabin that Ienzo had just left. 

The redhead had his head in his hands, fingers curled around the back of his cranial mass.    
Ienzo leaned back and watched the sky as it lit up with lilac electricity. “I am scared too.” The purple veins seemed like they were trying to part the clouds and reveal the stubborn sun.   
  
Lea’s shoulders shook when he took in a sudden breath. Ienzo rested a hand on his shoulder and Lea didn’t budge.   
  
“Demyx is such a fool, and he has never taken proper care of himself” Ienzo spoke evenly. “I am terrified.”   
  
Another sharp inhale.   
  
“And I think of Xion as a sister of sorts,” the bluenette added. “I did not mean to invalidate your fear. Forgive me Lea.” He spoke, squeezing his shoulder. 

They stayed like that for a good long while. When Ienzo felt Lea start to shake with cold under his hand he decided it was time to go into town.   
  
_ Cold. He is shaking from cold. benefit of the doubt.  _ Ienzo assured himself.   
  
“Come. We will get a hotel and find a mechanic to fix the tire tomorrow.” Ienzo soothed, standing and pulling a napkin from a take out bag to write a note for the window.    
  
Lea stayed in the mud only a moment more before standing to tower over the small man. They each took a bag of belongings. Only Ienzo talked for now, and only when necessary.    
  
Quickly enough, the scientist found a suitable hotel on his phone and took Lea’s hand, leading him to the building. The rain dripping from their clothes to the polished floors was incredibly loud in the serene silence of the lobby. The man behind the desk furrowed his brow at the two and moved to his computer to get them a room as soon as he could.   
  
Ienzo padded to the desk. “Apologies...car trouble and weather has a sense of humour.” Ienzo spoke with a forced and weak laugh. 

The man swallowed and nodded. Normally he would be perturbed, but their expressions incited empathy in the man. “How many beds? Two?”   
  
Ienzo nodded and the man produced their key card. The bluenette nodded his thanks and led the taller to the elevator.    
  
“You shower first. You were out there longer.” The scientist spoke with no room for argument. Lea simply nodded. Any sound he would have made was overshadowed by the elevator doors opening. 

They found their room quickly enough. Ienzo slipped the key card into the reader and opened the door for the lumbering redhead. Despite their agreement on the elevator, Lea slowly stalked to the closest bed and slumped onto it face first.   
  
Ienzo sighed. “I'll start running the water for you”.   
  
Lea grumbled a hum in response and Ienzo knew that was the best he would get from the man at the moment. He slipped to the bathroom but kept an eye on the other.    
  
His hair fanned out limp on the beige comforter, eerily red in comparison and dark with rain. He was not used to seeing Lea’s hair lack it’s meticulous styling. That accompanied with the damp darkness almost made his hair look like blood. The man before him was a far cry from the one that once tracked the child thrust upon him across worlds.    
  
To be fair, that was different.   
  
Distance and illness are two different beings. Distance is much easier to close.

* * *

Lea stared at the wall of decorative tiles as the sea green glass became blurred with steam and his own hair fell over his eyes. He was still as rock, scalding water flowing over his back as if it were stone from a hot spring. His hand, red from the heat, traced the grout that held the tiles on their surface. His nails caught on cracks in the jewel tone glass and his hand stopped moving. He thought of the stand still. He thought of how this was the first time in years that he felt hopeless. All he could do now was wait and listen, pray the scientists at Radiant Garden could find out what was wrong and put an end to it. For nights on nights he would make something up to the kids and slip away to the hospital that housed Isa. Lea would wait and listen for a change in his breathing, only to wake up and hope for Isa to have awoken...his face still peaceful and still.   
  
Lea has never hated seeing Isa peaceful more in his life. A couple years ago that was all he wanted for the man- but not like this. Green eyes closed, then a moment later they screwed shut to a painful degree. Lea grit his teeth and lay his forehead on the burning tiles. Any more rage and the energy from his hand would send the water boiling. He would find himself in the hospital next to Isa and powerless to help him, covered in hellish burns.    
  
The man tried to force himself calm, but when the image of Isa’s face still and sleeping on a hospital bed faded...his mind’s eye replaced it with Xion’s face.   
  
Red mixed with the water and the tile crunched in glass shards under his fist. Lea cried, quiet enough to be muffled by the shower at first. His uninjured hand trailer under his eyes where the upside down tears once marked his face.

_ “I thought you outgrew the marks under your eyes...you look like you need them” _   
  
He punched the wall again, and again and again. Those words had kept repeating in his head for months. If he closed his eyes tight enough they would lose meaning, they would just be syllables ringing in his ears but this gave him little comfort. He didn't want to lose the sound of Isa’s voice.

It was clear to see though, Lea didn’t know if he would hear Isa’s voice again. 

Lea’s mantra was interrupted, and he opened his eyes slowly. Not Isa’s voice. Ienzo’s. Lea strained his ears to listen but it was quiet. Ienzo had a habit of talking to himself, and he figured that was all it was. His eyes closed again.   
  
“Lea”   
  
He paused. “Yeah?”   
  
Ienzo pressed his hand on the wood of the door but did not open it. “I heard something break, are you all-” Ienzo paused.  _ He is not alright. _ “Are you hurt?”

Lea grit his teeth and shut his eyes shut as far as they could go. “Go away” He said coldly. “I don’t want you to fix this for me. Go get ice or something. Food.”   
  
Ienzo grimaced and hardened his brow.  _ He sees me as a child doesn’t he? _ Ienzo would not normally allow himself such a display of aggression. He tried to be as gentle as he could with anyone and everyone since his recompletion. The truth is ….he did actually hold anger within him still. Anger and guilt and even seething rage at times. More so than he ever did as Zexion. Zexion had the luxury of no heart to amplify darkness….funny thing to say isn’t it? That as a nobody he might have been less deplorable? At least Zexion was honest about being a wretch.  _ A false human is less than a nobody.  _ Such a thought was a plague, an infection that was deadly when a heart was fresh and tender.

Nobodies- the dark beings they were, found themselves lucky they held no hearts to amplify dark emotions. Hearts made you feel the good….and the bad. 

It was an adjustment period for all of them but more so for Ienzo. The others had been allowed to reach the edge of childhood intact, even if for two of them it was only to grasp the gates of adolescence. Roxas and Xion had no frame of reference to know how much they suffered and that in and of itself dulled the edge for them. Ienzo though, was a small child still suffering from one astronomical loss only to endure another.

Ienzo growled and slammed his olive hand into the wood of the door, pricking the tan skin pink. Emotions overwhelmed him at the best of times...that is why Ienzo wore the sweet smiling mask that Zexion had forsaken.

Lea hardly reacted to the violence. “Go...take a walk.”   
  
“It is pouring Lea.” Ienzo responded with bitter politeness, thunking his forehead this time to the door with more force than necessary. “Whatever. Stay in there.” He smiled bitterly before slipping his head away and stepping back to his bed.

He rummaged through his bags with a disregardful swiftness he had not allowed himself since he was eighteen. Eighteen felt so long ago numerically yet the numbness was fresh. When Ienzo first learned of how volatile the illness was he feigned the numbness of being a nobody to cope just as Zexion feigned the emotions of a human. Ienzo could feel himself slipping back into that role now as he pulled out his head phones, phone and backpack. He didn’t bother to change, he was just going to get wet again. Ienzo toed on his boots without retying them and headed for the door, closing it with more force than warranted.

  
Lea grimaced when he heard the walls shake with the force.   
  
Once out of the room the bluenette ran. He ran through the halls and straight for the stairwell, too upset to wait patiently in an elevator. Boots squealed and squelched on the steps with the sopped in rain water as he sprinted  _ up _ the stairs. Patreons surely were not allowed up on the roof but a perk of being an organization kid was being able to sneak into places that were not meant for you. When he reached the door to the furthest reaches of the building, he made short work of it. Easily, Ienzo forced the lock open without breaking it and swung the heavy metal door open.    
  
Ienzo stopped then, and just breathed in the mist of a storm just beyond the doorframe. He felt the rain on his face when the wind changed directions. He saw the sky light up. The heavenly electric rage closer to him than he had seen in years. A small polite voice- Ienzo’s voice, hoped that he still remembered how to do this quietly in the back of his head. That was the only hesitation before the bluenette started to run again.   
  


* * *

  
Lea cleaned the glass from his hand in silence. The only sharp sounds breaking the dull thrum of the hotel were the shards clinking against the tile while he worked them out with tweezers he stole from Ienzo’s medical kit. Momentarily Lea considered putting on music but the thoughts in his head were too loud and too many to be able to hear anything the radio could belt out. He hadn’t meant to yell at Ienzo.   
  
Lea shook his head as if to clear it and yanked a shard out cruelly, causing the weakening stream of crimson to pick back up in flow. He didn’t have time to worry about an ex colleague that was  _ supposed _ to be an adult now. He did feel sympathy for Ienzo ...but Even was old. He was old and broken and-   
  
“Covered in severe burn scars” Lea muttered to himself. The tweezers stilled. “I should call The kids” He breathed tiredly like he was simply out late at work and not stopped up from taking a man to identify and collect the body of his adoptive father.    
  
Lea still had not decided if it was sympathy or guilt that forced him to volunteer as Ienzo’s companion for the glum trip. Or, perhaps, the need to get on the scientist’s good side. Lea told himself it was normal for him to want the RA crew to treat Isa and Xion first. When they find a way to put a stopper in the inky blackness that was sucking hearts back into the void, Lea hoped that his murder of the bluenette would water under the bridge.   
  
Bandaging his hand loosely, the man made his way to find his phone. Upon his second return to the bedroom proper Lea noticed the level of dishevelment that Ienzo would never tolerate with a clear head. The man groaned and smoothed his uninjured hand over his face. “That kid..” He muttered blithely as if everything were alright. 


End file.
